Here’s one ministry principle I learned from my parents: take God and His Word and holiness and ministry seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. As a pastor I spend plenty of time having very serious conversations and preaching serious sermons. It’s good to have some fun with the church family as well. In addition to church picnics and baseball games and other recreation like that, we also have two yearly events when we laugh together. One is the church camping trip each June, when we traditionally sing silly songs on Sunday night. The other is family fun night, which rolls around each October. This year was our third annual camping trip, and tonight we’ll enjoy our fourth annual Family Fun Night. This year I’m sparing anyone else the misery of participating with me in the skits – I’m attempting a monologue. Here’s a flashback to last year:

Or does it? I’m sure I’ve heard it a hundred times: pastors must not cheat and count their sermon preparation time as their personal devotions. As a matter of fact, it seems quite clear to many that studying the Bible for preaching and reading the Bible for personal growth are entirely distinct and must never be substituted for one another.

There is an underlying concern: that the pastor will preach and teach the Bible each week without actually growing in the Lord himself. He will neglect his own spiritual growth as he supposedly leads others in spiritual growth.

I agree that this would be a grievous hypocrisy, so I do not disagree with the underlying concern. But I vehemently disagree with the solution. To suggest that a pastor’s sermon preparation and devotional Bible reading must be distinct is to suggest that pastors seldom learn from or apply what they preach. It is to suggest that for most preachers, preaching isn’t devotional. If that is the case, we are in terrible trouble!

As I study a biblical text to teach or preach, is it not true that my first concern should be my own understanding of the text and my own obedience to that text? How can preaching have any integrity if the sermon preparation was not devotional for the preacher’s heart first?

I believe that the concern is valid, but the answer is backwards. We don’t need to encourage preachers to divorce their devotional reading from their study. We need to encourage them to make the study a place of great devotion.

Remarkable words from Lloyd-Jones (Preaching and Preachers):

• “the reading of the Word and prayer shortened drastically”
• “a ’song leader’ … is supposed to produce the atmosphere”
• “if you can find … a baseball player, or an actor or actress or film-star, or pop-singer, or somebody well-known to the public to give their testimony, this is deemed to be of much greater value than the preaching and exposition of the Gospel.”
• “The form [of preaching] became more important than the substance, the oratory and eloquence became things in and of themselves, and ultimately preaching became a form of entertainment. The Truth was noticed, they paid a passing respect to it, but the great thing was the form.”

I’m preparing to preach on the seventh commandment: you shall not commit adultery. We’ll begin this week with a study on the faithful love that God demonstrates toward His people. I did not realize the massive amount of material that I would encounter: there is this cluster of Hebrew words (‘emet, ‘amen, ‘amunah, etc.) that are difficult to translate into English. They overlap some with the Greek pistis and pistos, which can also be challenging to translate. It’s hard for a native English speaker to understand how the same noun can mean “faith” or “faithfulness,” depending on the context. Then all of this overlaps with the longstanding debate about the connotations of chesed. Most of these words are used many times in Scripture, so there is a pretty large mountain of data to be mined here.

These are not obscure issues. They help to explain some of the remarkable translation differences in some well-known passages, like the end of Psalm 37:3:

• KJV “verily thou shalt be fed”
• ESV “befriend faithfulness”
• NASB “cultivate faithfulness”
• NIV “enjoy safe pasture”

For the reader of the English Bible, the translators’ decisions on these questions can dramatically change the apparent meaning of a passage. For example:

• Matthew 23:23 Are the weightier provisions of the law “justice, mercy, and faith” or “justice, mercy, and faithfulness”?
• Galatians 5:22 is the fruit of the Spirit faith or faithfulness?
• Micah 6:8 love mercy? love kindness?

Then there are passages that are difficult for the English reader to understand because of our unfamiliarity with the Hebrew usage:

• Joshua 24:14 Fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth.
• I Samuel 12:24 Fear the Lord and serve Him in truth with all your heart.
• Genesis 24:27 God has not forsaken … His truth toward my master.
• I Kings 2:4 Walk before me in truth.

As it stands, the English in those passages doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We wouldn’t say: “Joe, don’t forsake your truth toward your wife.” I suspect that most English readers think that I Samuel 12:24 means to truly/really serve God; or they think it means to serve him in the truth. Both concepts are true, but with that preposition the most likely meaning for ‘emet there is “faithfully.”

So I’m learning a lot, and I’d better get back to it! Sunday is coming soon.

I just came across this quote from Dawkins about his book:

“I suppose anybody who reads it should no longer be capable of thinking that the world is 6,000 years old, should no longer be capable of thinking evolution isn’t a fact,” he said. “I’d like to think there’s got to be something wrong with people who finish the book and don’t think that.”

I love it! Wouldn’t we all love to say that: “There’s got to be something wrong with anyone who disagrees with me.”

The Greatest Show on Earth is the title of Richard Dawkins’ latest book, arguing that there is plenty of evidence to demonstrate that evolution is a fact of science. I haven’t read the book, but I was interested by the review from The Economist in the September 5 issue.

The Economist generally charts a fairly moderate course on most issues, making the (expensive) weekly issues a very readable and helpful survey of world news. But apparently they have no such moderation when it comes to the question of origins. Their review of The Greatest Show is hardly a review, but a combination advertisement (for the book and evolution) and polemic (against any suggestion of a Creator or Intelligent Designer).

Among the cute anecdotes from the article: creation scientists are “a ragbag of nonentities, mostly engineers or chemists rather than biologists.” We have a PhD biologist in our church who also happens to be a creation scientist. I’m humored to learn that he is actually a nonentity!

I was also intrigued by their claim that the “immensity of pain” in the animal kingdom (and the world at large) is a fatal blow to any suggestion of an intelligent designer. They claim that “among the many puzzles that evolution explains so well are the futility and suffering that are ubiquitous in the natural world.”

Is survival of the fittest really the best explanation? The Bible pegs the moral climate of our modern world (Rom. 1:24-32, II Tim. 3:1-5), the religious climate of our modern world (II Tim. 4:3-4), and the pain and heartache of our modern world (Rom. 8:21-22, I Thess. 4:13). It also explains the universality of these problems (Ps. 51:5, Rom. 5:12, Jer.17:9, Eph. 2:3) and their impact on creation (Rom. 8:22). These things provide a remarkably thorough worldview, explaining “the futility and suffering that are ubiquitous.” To claim that such futility and suffering “defies explanation” by any theistic view is to demonstrate a gross ignorance of the Bible. The Economist should do better.

Unlike Darwinism, the Bible also provides the answer, because God has provided the answer (Rom. 5:15-17). Because of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, even the creation will someday be set free from its slavery to corruption (Rom. 8:21). That will be the greatest show on earth.

The Trues had a good, exhausting trip to South Carolina. Now it’s time to start firming up some of our plans for the church in Rancho, with the launch less than a year away. Would you pray for these things:

1. We’re excited that we are already starting to get contacts that may be interested in the new church. We started “cold turkey” in Menifee and didn’t really have any contacts (one family). It is wonderful to begin making contacts in Rancho now. We’ve had some phone calls and even a couple of families attending our church because they are interested in the new church. Pray for the Lord to give Eric wisdom as he interacts with these contacts. We would love to start a Bible study in Rancho in the spring.
2. Pray for Grace in Menifee, that God would provide the leadership and finances to strengthen GBC after the new church plant.
3. Pray for the provision of a permanent facility in Menifee, and the provision of the right starting facility in Rancho.
4. Pray for the Trues and others as they face a year of big changes and uncertainties preparing for the transition to Rancho.

Ted Kennedy recently passed away at the age of 77. Senator Byrd is 91, Lautenberg is 85, Inouye is 84, Specter is 79. Seventy-six members of the House were born before 1943.

Jerry Coleman continues in the booth for the Padres at age 85, and Vin Scully at 81 for the Dodgers. (FYI Jerry Coleman flew 120 missions in WWII and Korea!)

And my father, in his seventies, is church planting in Mormon country.

Even if I don’t agree with some of these men (like the first!), I have to salute them for continuing to live passionately late into life.

Apparently, if God graciously allows a long life and reasonable health, a person can continue to be very productive for a very long time. This is exciting for God’s people: only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. I salute those men (especially Dad!) who press on.

I rarely use this blog to jump into issues related to fundamentalism, theological debates, or similar issues. There is some buzz about this article by Phil Johnson on “The Demise of Evangelicalism.” I just wanted to comment on this line that jumped out at me:

All three aspects of the neo-evangelical agenda had unintended and unfortunate consequences.

In seminary I wrote a paper based off of Carl Henry’s Confessions of a Theologian (in the process I also read his The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism). My impression was that there were some remarkable unintended consequences of the ideas Henry proposed in Uneasy Conscience. The end of Confessions (written about four decades later) is remarkable – I think that Henry could see clearly that things were headed in a dangerous direction.

My point is simply this: the ability to look beyond a decision and consider its unintended consequences is an important part of pastoral wisdom and maturity. Certainly the “slippery slope” argument can be abused (i.e., applied to just about anything one wishes to criticize), but young pastors would do well to at least consider the slope.

By the way, I love Johnson’s conclusion:

The task for the remnant who still believe and teach classic evangelical doctrine is to remain faithful and remember that the gospel—not the combined clout of a large politically-driven movement—is the power of God unto salvation.

Last Sunday evening our church family spent some time considering how little power we have and how much power God has. We looked briefly at some of the remarkable NT statements about the power of God to work in the human heart. We concluded that we need much more desperation for the power of God to work – but we will not have this desperation until we really face how little power we have on our own.

We love to vacation in Southern California because it helps expand our knowledge of the area and love for the area. If God blesses us with longevity here, it will be exciting when we can really, genuinely call Southern California home! Obviously we’ve considered it home since we moved here, but I think you know what I mean – when a place is really home. Church planting team members often struggle with homesickness. We look forward to the day when people will long to come back home to Southern California, instead of longing to leave!

Anyway, vacationing here is one of many ways we try to make it home. We want our children to love their memories of family times together in Southern California.

Every time I’m in San Diego, I’m mulling the church planting challenges and opportunities here. Military town, beach town, world-famous travel destination town, on-the-border with Mexico town, three million people  town, what a town! San Diego is one of those places that’s appealing to people even before they’ve ever seen it. As a church planting location, it’s certainly a challenge. Praise the Lord for Metro Baptist Church, Canyon Ridge Baptist Church, Faith Community Bible Church, and others.

I’ve been teaching through the teachings of Jesus for three and a half years in Adult Bible Study (and we still have a long ways to go). I wanted to study the teachings of Jesus because I found His words to be some of the most difficult in Scripture, yet I wanted to hear His voice and know Him better through those words. In this later period of Jesus’ teaching, leading up to the Passion week, one theme seems to repeatedly rise to the surface: true disciples must follow Him whatever the cost. Or, the cost of following Jesus. He relentlessly emphasizes this theme, which means I have needed to relentlessly teach this theme!

No one wants to be told to abandon all and follow Jesus. No one wants to be told to seek not our own will but our Father’s will. No one wants to hear about taking up a cross or leaving family. Yet Jesus combines these demands with incredible promises. Here’s our current text, from Luke 18:

Peter said, ‘Behold, we have left our own [things] and followed you.’ And He said to them, ‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.’ (NASB)

I find myself struggling to know how to preach the promises with power. Of course part of the answer is exposition: diligently show the promises of the Word, because God powerfully works through His Word. Part of the answer is to be a prepared and prayerful vessel, because the power of the Spirit must illumine the Word. But I still struggle with the practical matter of how to preach the promises. Piper has a famous warning about the danger of preaching a megaton of truth with an ounce of passion. Easier warned than heeded, I think! I want to preach the promises passionately. Yet, at times it can feel like this: “Isn’t that neat!? Isn’t that really, really neat!?” – like trying to get your kids to be impressed by the Grand Canyon when they want to play with the pine cones.

Am I excited about those promises? How can I preach those promises with power?

I’m 36 pages into Kevin DeYoung’s Just Do Something – yet another book on the will of God. So far, I’m impressed. I just read these lines:

My fear is that of all the choices people face today, the one they rarely consider is, ‘How can I serve most effectively and fruitfully in the local church?’ I wonder if the abundance of opportunities to explore today is doing less to help make well-rounded disciples of Christ and more to help Christians avoid long-term responsibility and have less long-term impact.

We recently had a visitor come back to our church (he had visited a couple of years ago). He told one of our men: “Your church doesn’t seem to be growing very fast.” That kind of comment doesn’t bother me – we’re here to be aggressively, patiently faithful to God. But I will confess that this thought went through my mind: “If you knew all the people who’ve moved away or for some other reason moved on over the last couple of years, you’d see that we’ve actually grown a lot!”

I’ll put it positively: Christians who serve faithfully in the same church for a long time are a big blessing!

God is always worthy of our thanks. What is so remarkable is that at any time, no matter what the pressing circumstances of the moment, any child of God can find countless things to thank Him for. Isn’t that amazing? This morning I am thankful for family: my inlaws have been here again this week, and I am thankful again for their godly example and love for us. I am thankful to get to work with a plurality of elders: the last couple weeks God has given us fresh opportunities to work together, and it is a joy. I am thankful for God’s grace evident in the lives of gutsy people who make big moves to participate in church planting. We just learned of one couple moving from Indiana to help a church in Buckeye, Arizona. Arizona is a long ways from Indiana, in more ways than one! We’ve had visits from several prospective team members this summer, and I’m amazed at the grace of God evident in their desires. I’m thankful for those who’ve labored to exhaustion to create study Bibles, like the one I’m using in my devotions. I’m thankful for men who’ve labored to grasp Old Testament theology and then labored to explain it in an understandable way (like Walter Kaiser’s wonderful article on “Rest” that I’m reading right now). I’m thankful for the Bible software that allows me to find an article like that so quickly.

I’ll stop there, but it’s not because I ran out of things to write about! His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

This gives you a partial view of what the college auditorium looks like after we set up for church:

That was my dessert at lunch this past Sunday: sweet and messy. Hot chocolate brownies with peanut butter inside, vanilla ice cream on top. Sweet and messy, kind of like the fellowship of God’s people. We’re stuck in the same bowl together: individually members one of another (Romans 12:6). Like brownies and ice cream, it is an intentional mixture: God has placed the members, each one of them, just as He desired (I Corinthians 12:18). But is is also a messy combination of sinners that requires immense grace: Live in peace with one another … admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil… So it’s messy. But I insist that it is also sweet. Sweet because here the power of the cross can be demonstrated in a most remarkable way.

I wonder: do we try to hard to avoid the messiness? Are we too scared of disagreeing with one another? Too nervous about confrontation? Too careful to cover up our own heart messiness? If our church appears to be a calm oasis with no relational messiness, could that be a sign of a dangerous truce (”you’re relationship with God is your business, and my relationship is my business”)? Here’s what I’m telling myself today: “Stop trying to flee from the messiness. Stop dreaming about the day when you’ll have a church of perfect people and no messes. Embrace this God-given messiness, that the power of the cross might be seen.”

The messiness will never go away until we are made like Him when we see Him. But until then, God’s grace will be magnified in the mess, through moments that can only be attributed to him: moments of love, repentance, and reconciliation. Sweet!

I’m sorry about the long pause.

• We had the Facenda family with us over the 4th of July weekend. They are on their way to Gwangju, South Korea – one of those huge Asian cities with little gospel witness (I just saw a list of 55 Chinese cities with populations over 500,000).
• My family drove to Reno, Nevada to visit with my sister and her family. We had a wonderful visit with them, and I enjoyed being able to visit their church, Community Bible Church. The Lord providentially allowed a few complications – stitches for Katie and pink eye for Abby.
• While we were gone, a team from Hampton Park Baptist Church was here. They did door-to-door canvassing in brutal heat, making several good contacts. One 14-year old boy made a profession of faith in Christ and one new family visited on Sunday. They also did an excellent program of music and testimonies on Sunday morning.
• Kristalyn’s ultrasound yesterday showed that the baby is most likely another girl! (see below)

The next four weeks will be extremely busy for us. By God’s grace we’ll work hard, pray hard, and look forward to reporting back about what the Lord is doing.

Pastors experience a wide range of emotions when they finish teaching a lesson or sermon: euphoria, heartache, disappointment, apathy, concern, relief. I put very little stock in my emotions at those times, because they often seem to be founded upon entirely subjective evidence (why did he raise his eyebrow at me when I said ___?). If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ (Gal. 1:10). What should a pastor say when the sermon is over? World magazine has an article on “last words,” and it includes these sweet words from the end of Augustine’s The City of God:

From all who think that I have said either too little or too much, I beg pardon; and those who are satisfied I ask, not to thank me, but to join me in rejoicing and in thanking God. Amen.

I had a funny conversation with our church family yesterday. You see, we have a big community event this weekend. We have an entry in our city’s parade, as well as a booth at the Independence Day festival (this is all this Saturday, June 27). And I really don’t like doing this kind of thing. I don’t like being in a parade. I don’t like planning for a parade. I don’t like spending hours standing beside a booth most people avoid (actually, if I keep making animal balloons the kids won’t avoid us…). I would much rather spend my Saturday evening at home, preparing to preach on Sunday.

So, I told our church family that. I told them that because I know many of them don’t want to be in the parade either. They don’t want to walk down the street with crowds of people staring at them. They don’t want to be at our booth. They don’t want to be out in the hot sun. So most of us are in the same boat.

Of course that’s not the end of the story. There are other motivations that drive us out of our comfort zone. The love of Christ compels us. He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. We are ambassadors for the One we love, His ambassadors in this community. If this community is going to gather together, His ambassadors should be there. It’s part of the “Go” in the great commission.

I still don’t want to go. And I told them that. And then we preached some truth to ourselves.

I’m not in any position to give an official review of the materials from Matthias Media or provide a thorough critique of their distinctives. But I know this: I am ending up using more and more of their materials, and they seldom disappoint me. I’ve also been receiving their magazine (The Briefing) and I find it to be refreshing and challenging.

Why is it that I keep turning to their materials? Three reasons come to mind right away:

1. They don’t seem to have an agenda to promote other than Scripture. They aren’t afraid to say hard things (like criticizing the charismatic movement), but they don’t use their publishing house as an opportunity to make converts who agree with them on non-essentials. They really do seem to stay focused on Scripture.
2. They are careful. They aren’t trying to produce edgy materials. I don’t have to give a whole bunch of caveats before I distribute material from them.
3. They clearly have the local church in mind. It’s pretty easy to get a pastor’s attention: simply produce the kind of resources that he needs! They organize their materials into product categories that are helpful for local church ministry. They show the relationship between their products. They explain how they can be useful for different types of people in the church. They aren’t chasing the wallets of the Christian book store crowd – they are trying to help churches.

Practically, they keep their resources affordable and offer good quantity discounts. I’ve gotten great customer service from their US office.

Negatively, the Anglican connections are probably a concern for a lot of people, and I can’t quite sort through all of that. Their core Two Ways to Live presentation could more strongly emphasize the concept of hell as a place of conscious torment. The 2WTL video training has a modesty issue that made a significant portion unusable for us. Their website could use a little help, and trying to keep track of the US and Aussie sites is a little annoying.

But overall, from the resources I’ve used thus far, this local church pastor is very thankful for Matthias Media. I recommend church planters get a catalog and take a look. Some of the things we’ve used:

• Two Ways to Live (tract and training)
• Two Roads
• Who Will Be King
• The Essential Jesus
• The Bible Overview
• A Foot in Two Worlds
• The Briefing

I just ordered “Six Steps to Encouragement” to consider as a resource for our discipleship training. I’ll try to give an update after I’ve had a chance to go through it.

Hollywood usually does well during a recession because Americans watch more movies. Why is that? Because more people are unemployed and have more free time? Because people wish to escape from thinking about the economic troubles? Here’s a suggested answer, from the latest issue of The Economist:

Another way Americans are saving money is by staying at home, so firms [like Netflix] that offer a distraction from the horrors of family life are doing well.

Amazing. If my name was Mohler I could write an eloquent blog post about this. Long before we ditched one male / one female in favor of other arrangements, Americans had decided that God’s plan for the family stinks. Husbands who rule graciously? Forget it. Wives who follow joyfully? Forget it. Children who are expected to obey? Forget it. Children are a blessing? Forget it, they’re a hindrance.  Save the physical relationship until marriage? An impossibly insane idea. God’s plan stinks, and we have much better ideas.

So how have our brilliant plans worked? Have we ushered in a new era of family bliss, now that we’ve tossed aside God’s ridiculous expectations? The recession provides many people with more time at home with their families, and they have to rent more movies to escape “the horrors of family life.” Are we sure God’s plan stinks?

There is a way that seems right to a man…

Building a church is easy. The hard work begins after the church has grown, when you’re faced with people who tend to become complacent. (MacArthur, The Master Plan for the Church, p.19)

The first sentence is a typical MacArthurian overstatement, but the second sentence caught my attention. This is not a pastoral rant against complacent people, because (as I noted here)  pastors are as prone to complacency as anyone else. In our church right now we have quite a few people who need to get off the sideline and into the game – yet I see clear areas in my life where I need to get off the sideline and into the game. Pastor MacArthur is right that complacency, both in the pulpit and the pew, creates a major challenge in a maturing church.

What is the solution? Surely there are scores of answers to that question, but a recent study of Luke 17:5-6 has my mind spinning on the role of faith. True faith involves knowledge + assent + trust. I’m afraid that in my own heart I often change the equation to knowledge + assent + the motions. I really believe, in a theoretical sense, that God could work and do great things to glorify Himself by making disciples. I keep doing the right things. But am I doing the right things by faith, or are they just religious motions?

How do I add trust to my knowledge and assent and motions? First, dependent prayer, as exemplified in Mark 9:23-24 and exhorted in Mark 9:29. No matter how much knowledge and assent I have, my faith is weak if it does not turn to dependent prayer. Second, courageous action, as prayed for in Ephesians 6:19-20 and exemplified in Hebrews 11:8, 27. Again, I may be a “perfect 10″ in knowledge and assent, but if that does not lead to courageous action in light of the unseen realities (II Cor. 5:7-8) the faith is weak.

As a pastor, and as a church, we need to move beyond “Yes, God could do something.” No matter how much we believe that, knoweldge and assent alone are not sufficient. We must act upon it by actually praying for God to do something and then stepping out in dependent courageous action.

This week we had our fourth Southern California Ministry Summit. I’m excited:

• About the core of pastors that are eager to work together for the sake of Christ-honoring churches. When we started Summit there were three or four primary churches: now there are about eight.
• About the connection with the National Church Planting Conference in Mentor and church planters all over the country. We were privileged to have Pastor Tim Potter with us this year. The “church planting friends” list on this blog stretches from Georgia to New York City to Colorado to California.
• About the opportunity our church has to help the Sneedens start Metro Baptist Church in San Diego. Since we’re just a little more than an hour away, I think we can play a key role in assisting them. This could be a great blessing to them and great practice for the Rancho plant.

If you’re not familiar with Ministry Summit, it is an annual pastor’s fellowship focused on helping church planters in the Southwest. If you hear of anyone interested in church planting in Southern California, Central California, or Las Vegas, we would love to have you point them in our direction. The men who gather at Summit each year are eager to encourage, mentor, and help new and prospective church planters. Summit is also a great learning experience for anyone interested in church planting, even if their target area is not in the Southwest.

One final post to wrap up this overview of some aspects of our church planting philosophy. Ultimately, what really matters? We know the right answer, but in the daily grind of church planting it’s easy to drift toward other things. Though we know the right answer, we need to preach it to ourselves over and over again.

So what does really matter? For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren. According to my earnest expectation and hope, that I will not be put to shame in anything, but that with all boldness, Christ will even now, as always, be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. Always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

This matters more than anything else: that the church planter might be changed into the image of Christ, that Christ might be exalted and God glorified. Then God will manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. But first things first.

We should hold on to ministry success very loosely. It is not really that important. It must not become our idol. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment.

This series of posts has dealt primarily with traditional church planting that seeks to develop a self-supporting church rather quickly. But a vibrant church planting movement in Southern California would have two other significant aspects  beyond these traditional church plants.

Many places in Southern California need missionary church planters because it would be very difficult to quickly establish a self-supporting church. The residents in some areas have very low incomes; some areas have very high turnover, making it difficult to establish a stable core group; some areas are just especially challenging (downtown LA, downtown San Diego, Hollywood, ritzy beach enclaves like Malibu). Many of these areas need missionary pastors with longer-term support.

Southern California is also packed with opportunities for narrower outreach ministries. Here are a few examples:

• College ministry: There are over 300,000 students in the University of California and Cal State schools in Southern California (11 major universities, and that doesn’t include any of the private schools or community colleges).
• Military ministries: Southern California has about 15 military installations of various types, processing and training hundreds of thousands of soldiers each year. Major bases include Camp Pendleton, MCAS Miramar, 29 Palms, and Fort Irwin.
• Mercy ministries: Our area of Southern California, with a population well over 300,000, is just getting its first homeless shelter. I spent two years volunteering with youth in the state dependency system (children in foster care or group homes). There are nearly unlimited opportunities here.
• Senior citizen ministries: We have at least 15,000 seniors that live in Menifee.
• Substance abuse help.

Frankly, we have hardly begun to scratch the surface of these opportunities in missionary church planting and other outreach ministries. But we are committed to two basic concepts:

1. These ministries are an important part of a church planting movement.
2. These ministries are the result of a vibrant movement planting local churches.

We’ve already been talking to other pastors here about how exciting it will be when we see our first missionary for Southern California (ministering in one of those communities that needs a missionary church planter) from Southern California (discipled in one of our churches and supported by our churches).

What about foreign missions? First of all, there is a huge amount of “foreign” missions to be done in Southern California. Beyond that, another dream is to see a foreign missionary discipled here in Southern California and sent out with financial support primarily from Southern California churches. Church planting increases the support base for foreign missions.

We love church planting, and we believe that ministry in any community starts with planting local churches. But as you can see, a vibrant church planting movement involves much more than traditional church planting.

As I suggested in the first post in this series, not every man called to ministry is supposed to be a church planter. Different types of ministry call for different skills, personalities, and experience. Which characteristics should mark a church planter? Here are some of my personal thoughts:

• Ministry motivation that flows out of personal love for God. Motives are tricky things to discern (praise the Lord for His discerning Word, Heb. 4:12!). I am sure that my ministry motivations almost always involve some bad mixed with the good. We should try to discern, however, what is really driving a prospective church planter. Is the dominant motivation personal accomplishment or love for God?
• Preaching. Like it or not, the pastor’s preaching is the dominant reason why people choose a church. A church planter must be able to help people understand the Bible, from the non-Christian who knows nothing to the seasoned Christian. He needs to have a solid biblical education and a good library of tools so that he can study fairly quickly. Personalities vary, but he must be able to deliver the message with both empathy and passion.
• Love for people. Church planting requires caring for people, listening to people, discipling people, pursuing people, calming people, confronting people. A church planter who is easily irritated by people just won’t survive.
• Administrative skills. A church planter does not have to be able to do everything, but he does have to be able to keep track of everything. If he does not, credibility issues end up undermining the entire ministry. (If you are weak in this area, pray for God to allow you to be one of those privileged few with a secretary or assistant pastor from the very beginning!)
• Ministry experience in a variety of settings. Church planting is not a good time to experience for the first time what day-to-day ministry with people is like. Ministry experience is important, but especially ministry experience with various ages in various settings. A man who has only been a youth pastor in a huge church or only preached to seniors in a nursing home will have a hard time handling the breadth of ministry in church planting.
• Patience. Church planting is a marathon, not a sprint. Impatient church planters overreact, making hasty decisions and big messes.
• Thick skin. It may not sound especially spiritual, but a church planter must not take himself too seriously. Laugh at yourself. Recognize that you will make a lot of mistakes.  Relax. You will face plenty of criticism in your ministry: listen to the criticism, learn what you can, love the people criticizing you, and relax. Power is perfected in weakeness (II Cor. 12:9).
• Humility and Teachability. You can kill yourself reinventing the wheel: good church planters are willing to ask for help. You can kill your ministry if you lash out at people who criticize you: be teachable.
• Drive. The motivation needs to be God-centered, as noted above, but the motivation has to be there. Because there is often lower accountability, laziness is a significant temptation in church planting. Good church planters tend to be men who are driven – yet that drive is tempered by humility and patience (otherwise they drive right over their family, their church family, etc.).
• Priorities. A church planter will face a constant struggle with expectations and priorities. He must choose to prioritize his own relationship with the Lord and the privilege of discipling his own family.

Caveat: God has already given us the most important requirements for a church planter: the qualifications of eldership in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1. Those qualities matter more than anything else.

Caveat: There is a tendency to have unrealistic expectations for church planters. As discussed in previous posts, the church planter (and his wife) aren’t supposed to be Christian superstars who can do everything, Lone Rangers who can tackle the world on their own. See Parts 2, 5, 6, and 7.

I think the autonomy of the local church is important: we are seeking to plant another church in Rancho Cucamonga, not a satellite campus of Grace Bible Church of Menifee. That church will need to “stand on its own two feet.” But should it stand alone?

Church planters must avoid two dangerous lines of thought: 1) Mine is the only truly biblical church in my area. 2) I am the only one who knows how to do ministry the right way.

If this kind of thinking develops, there are several dangerous consequences. Opinion alert: Regarding #1, it seems that church planters feel motivated to prove to everyone that there are no other “good” churches in their target area. In the process, they often shortcut the research process (lest they come across another “good” church). It seems that if a quick glance at the target area finds no “good” churches, there is no need to look further. Because this is a deputation gold mine: “There are zero good churches in this area.” That may be a deputation gold mine, but it is often not true.

I think we should relax. Suppose there are some other good churches in Rancho Cucamonga. It’s a city of 170,000 in an area of a million. Do I really need to feel the pressure to prove that my church is the only good church in town?

Regarding #2, the idea that I am the only one doing ministry the right way leads to all sorts of unhealthy behavior. It leads to a dangerous isolationism. It leads to pride. Much time is wasted reinventing every wheel necessary for church planting. Because I’m the only person who can do it right! Really?

Another quote (in my own words) from Pastor Robert Potter: “Churches need to reproduce like cells in the body: they multiply, then stay connected for strength and further multiplication.” He is not calling for blind ecumenism, nor am I. But I am very thankful for a group of godly pastors that I can fellowship with and work together with in Southern California.

If we are to see a vibrant church planting movement in Southern California, the next church plant in Rancho needs to stand on its own two feet as an independent church. But it must not stand alone. It must stand together with GBC Menifee and these other like-minded churches and pastors here in Southern California.

church planters? Well, yes. But maybe the first answer that comes to mind should be “churches”: Churches are planted by churches. Churches are uniquely equipped to provide the various kinds of support that we discussed in Part 5, especially if they are planting a church in their local area.

Suppose there is a particularly needy area in Southern California. What would be the best source of a church planter for that area? Churches in Southern California. What would be the best source of support for the new church plant? Churches in Southern California.

Years ago I came across a video about church planting. I’ll never forget one clip in which a hefty bearded Canadian said: “If church planting isn’t part of your DNA from the very beginning, you’re just not a New Testament church.” This has been our desire: that from the very beginning GBC Menifee would have reproduction as part of its DNA.

How do you know if your church is ready to plant another church? That’s a tricky question, because you can always find another reason why you aren’t ready. We need a few more people. We need more finances. We need more staff. We need our own building. If you start saying “We’ll consider planting another church once we get…”, you may well never plant another church! There will always be something else to get. We don’t want to be foolish, but it has been our commitment from the beginning to pursue reproduction as soon as we could.

When do you stop seeking to reach out and plant other churches? I’ll never forget a conversation I had with Pastor Bob Potter several years ago. He shared with me that in his opinion, many pastors reach a comfort level that is dangerous. They get a sufficient long-term facility, enough people to provide a comfortable salary for them, and a core set of ministries in the community. At that point it is very easy to get comfortable and complacent. Pastor Potter essentially said, “There are always more places to plant churches, even in our local area. As long as we continue to pursue that vision, I always have something to keep pushing me forward.” (I’m putting that in my own words) A few years later I was having a conversation with another godly man, and I asked him: “Why do you think pastors fall into immorality after many years in the ministry?” His answer startled me: “I think they get bored.”

Pastors, let’s press on. Churches are planted by … churches.

Here is another quote from Multiplying Churches that was helpful for me:

A refusal to undertake a gospel initiative out of a fear of failing is a far greater problem than a gospel initiative failing.

This should not condone rash decision making, or contradict the principle of preparation in Proverbs 24:27. However, the fear of failure can be a terrible master. Church planting is fairly risky, and many church plants have ended up “failing” because a congregation was not established within the expected time frame. This failure is often quite visible, especially to the churches and individuals that helped provide the necessary funding.

So with that kind of risk of public failure, wouldn’t it be better not to try at all? Of course not. We need to carefully rethink the meaning of the word “failure.” There are many ways that a church planter could fail: he could fail to walk in moral purity; he could fail to faithfully teach the Word; he could fail to shepherd his own family; he could fail to handle the church finances ethically. Those things could probably be appropriately termed “failure.” But is it appropriate to use the word “fail” if a church planter faithfully labors in a target area though a congregation is not established within the expected time frame?

In America, we highly value results and accomplishment. God highly values faithfulness and endurance. So take the risk: better to attempt the church plant and not succeed than avoid the church plant altogether because you wanted to guard your own reputation from any potential public failure.

How do you decide where to plant a church? The driving concern must be the will of God - but this does not exclude strategic planning. In other words, a prospective church planter faces an essentially endless number of possible target areas. As he seeks God’s direction regarding a single target area, strategy should play a role in his decision.

For (an admittedly biased) example, The Economist noted two weeks ago that “California quietly plays a vital role in shaping American society.” If God’s fame is our passion, a place like California will be a strategic priority.

Within strategic areas like California, the important cities ought to be the priority. I won’t repeat the biblical material that has been discussed previously, but I believe there should be a strategic emphasis placed upon important cities. This might even mean that a church planter will turn down the holy grail of church planting (a growing suburban area) and instead tackle the more challenging city center. (OK, so Menifee isn’t exactly a “city center” for Southern California. I guess I’m not exactly one to be talking!)

Of course this does not mean that small towns are inappropriate target areas for church planting, or that strategy is the most important factor in choosing a target area.

I have often enjoyed playing “Risk,” a game that depends heavily on strategy. In the opening phase of the game, players are given a certain number of armies to place on the game board. Most new Risk players immediately spread their troops evenly across the board. Then they die quickly, and learn their lesson! The next time, they will probably not randomly scatter soldiers across the board, but instead group them in countries with strategic importance. This kind of strategic thinking needs to be factored in as we choose target areas for church planting.

Before we came to California, I was challenged by this quote in Multiplying Churches (Ed. Stephen Timmis):

If the church is at the heart of God’s purposes and Christ’s saving work, we need not be embarrassed about making it the heart of mission.

Those words accurately reflect the New Testament emphasis on local churches. A simple phrase like that in I Cor. 12:24 reminds me of the immense importance of church families: for God has so composed the body. Like the composer of a symphony brings together diverse instruments into a beautiful song, God brings together His people into church families for His fame. Unfortunately some Christians have never been a part of a healthy church family. They have attended services; they have listened to preaching; they have volunteered in kids’ ministries. But they have never been a part of a body where the whole body causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love (Eph. 4:16).

Church planting refuses to make a dichotomy between the evangelism of the lost and the gathering of the evangelized into church families for the glory of God. If we care about evangelism, we will care about multiplying churches.

Over the next few weeks, Lord willing, I will write a series of posts sharing some of the philosophy that has driven our church planting efforts here in Southern California. The countdown toward the next church plant has begun in earnest, and we should be announcing the target area soon. This is a great time to go back and refresh some of the philosophy that has driven us to pursue church planting in a strategic city with a team, with the goal of a vibrant church planting movement.

But before we begin, a couple of caveats (those of you who know me are laughing). First, this philosophy has been shaped considerably by our setting here in Southern California. In that sense, it might technically be more of a methodology than a philosophy. A church planter in Tokyo, Fargo, or Rio de Janeiro would probably see things quite differently. I do not want to communicate that our methodology is the only right way - that would be foolish.

Secondly, I want to admit that there are other important areas of ministry besides church planting. What about all of the existing churches desperate for pastors? What about campus ministries, camps, Christian schools and colleges, prison ministries, Christian music, seminaries, and a host of other important ministries? I love church planting, but it isn’t the only thing God is accomplishing for His glory. Every pastor isn’t called to be a church planter. Every seminary student doesn’t have to pursue church planting. Every musician doesn’t have to use her skills in a church plant. Every cent of our missions budgets doesn’t need to go to church planting. I used to think that taking the pastorate of an existing church was relatively easy - now I can see how naive that was. Godly shepherds are needed to face the challenge of filling the pulpits in those hurting churches.

So before I begin this series, I gladly admit that there is much more to the Great Commission than church planting, and that our perspective is somewhat limited and possibly even skewed by our own setting.

The April 4 edition of The Economist has an excellent article on California (one of a series of U.S. state profiles they are doing). Here are a few favorite quotes or points, and their conclusion:

• California state politics is “dysfunctional” and “getting worse.” State legislators have a job approval rating of 11%.
• California “quietly plays a vital role in shaping American society.”
• Los Angeles “pioneered a motorway-oriented, low-rise, multi-centred urban model which has become the template for many other cities in the West and beyond.”
• “Los Angeles is now one of the best-policed cities in America.”
• “Hispanics and Asians are expected to account for nearly all of California’s population growth by 2020.”
• “California Asians have created a new culture by mixing Chinese, Japanese, Taiwanese, Korean, Vietnamese and American cultures.”
• “Although it has been extremely painful, the collapse of California’s property market has solved a major problem. It was largely thanks to overpriced housing that the state lost almost half a million residents to other states between 2004 and 2008.”
• “All rather messy, but this is how California works. The state is restless, chaotic and experimental. Few places make as many mistakes as California; fewer still have the capacity to recover from them so quickly.”

Praise the Lord that we get to call that little patch of His earth “home”!

I’ve been preaching on what the New Testament says about the Law. That probably doesn’t sound very exciting, but the passages that deal with the Law happen to be some of the same passages that defend the gospel with the greatest passion. So these sermons have been a delightful time of reveling in the gospel. Yesterday I came across this quote from John Donne (quoted by Paul Grimmond in The Briefing, March 09):

Of myself I have nothing to present to him but sins and misery, yet I know he looks not upon me now as I am of myself, but as I am in my Saviour.

Sweet music for the soul!
 

It’s been a little quiet on the blog since that last post about getting the keys. I think I can hear the homeowners out there laughting at us. Or at least chuckling. Too much to do, too little time! We’ve made some good progress, and it’s fun to be in the house. The big painting job is planned for Thursday and Friday, the big moving job for Saturday.

Luke 15 and Romans 5 in the same Sunday!? That’s what the Lord has lined up for tomorrow’s two services. What a blessing to preach the gospel from those two magnificent passages.

Love these thoughts from Steve Davis here:

In some ways the challenges are more daunting in church planting than in the past. On one hand, more and more churches are planted by teams, as it should be when possible. More time is taken to prepare for a church launch in order to constitute a committed core of people who will enhance the sustainability of the ministry. More attention is given to demographic studies in order to better understand the target groups. On the other hand, door-to-door evangelism can no longer be done in many areas. Rental costs have skyrocketed. Team ministry requires more resources to send and sustain a team in place. There are higher expectations by attendees and prospective members in the area of facilities and technology.

Christianity has moved more from the mainstream to the margins of society, particularly in urban areas that have been largely forsaken by fundamental churches. Happily, there is a refreshing call today for Christians to return to the cities from the safety and sameness of their utopian suburbs, to reject mono-cultural homogeneity in order to embrace divinely ordered diversity, to reclaim ground that has been lost to triumphant secularism, and to engage the culture of ideas in urban centers of education and the arts. All this in order to preach Christ and Him crucified in the densely populated, multi-cultural arenas of spiritual warfare and to live as Christians in community in neighborhoods that have been broken by sin and are filled with despair. Churches that will not partner with other churches, that will not invest significantly in supporting church planting teams, and that continue to concentrate on themselves in an exclusionary way will not plant many churches. They will however miss out on many of God’s blessings and fail to accomplish numerous purposes for which God planted their churches in the first place. How refreshing and spiritually delightful it would be to see in our time fundamental churches at the forefront of church planting and for God’s glory!

Here’s a great quote from the latest issue of The Briefing - a quote with significant ramifications for church planting teams:

“The difference between being a self-supporting servant of this gospel and being a financially-supported servant of this gospel is really very small. The Apostle Paul, after all, did a bit of both. But there is all the difference in the world between giving up our lives for Christ’s cause as a fellow worker in the gospel and choosing to live in a nice suburb with a nice career, a nice family and a bit of Christianity on the side.

“Here’s the test: someone who has denied themselves, who has taken up their cross and who wants to serve the gospel of Jesus makes their decisions in this order:

1. What’s the best gospel work for me to be involved in?
2. Where do I need to live in order to share in that ministry?
3. What sort of job do I need to fund living in that place in order to do that ministry.

“Let me be provocative and say that if you’re making your decisions in the reverse order, then you haven’t grasped the radical nature of the normal Christian life.”

(”Up Front,”pp.8-9 in The Briefing, Feb. 2009)

Last month Gallup released the results of a simple poll, asking: “Is religion an important part of your daily life?” They published a table showing the percentage of people who answered “Yes” on a state-by-state basis. Mississippi, Alabama, and South Carolina topped the list, with at least 80% saying “Yes.” Vermont and New Hampshire sat at the bottom of the list, with 42% and 46% positive responses.

So how did Californians answer? 57% said “Yes,” meaning that 38 states were higher than California and 12 states were lower. I think this is about what I would have expected. California is a fairly irreligious place, yet not a religious wasteland like New England. For every person we meet who wants nothing to do with religion, we meet another who fits the Bible-Belt stereotype: he made a decision at a crusade sometime, and he is certain that he is saved even though his life shows no evidence of following Christ. Simply put, it’s hard to stereotype Californians religiously. I’m not surprised that we landed toward the bottom - but not at the bottom - of Gallup’s list.

Three birthday presents:

• The latest gallup poll showing that a whopping 39% of Americans believe in evolution.
• The documentation of “astonishing richness” in polar sea species
• This quote from The Economist, citing Simon Conway-Morris, a palaeontologist at Cambridge University:  “On the source of moral systems and consciousness, [Conway-Morris] says, ‘we [evolutionists] are nowhere near an answer.’” (Feb 7, p.74)

1. No word yet on the facility at the community college.
2. We should receive our new church invitation cards today! We’ll have a GOnight this Sunday, and we are excited about getting back out in the community to share the gospel and invite people to church.
3. Only one more Sunday before Christian Life Conference begins. My father will be speaking seven times (and my mom twice to the ladies), and we’re praying that God will really use His Word in our church family.
4. We are officially house-hunting now, and would definitely appreciate your prayers that our hearts will stay focused on God, His will, and His priorities; instead of getting caught up in our desires or making a house an idol. We’re also a little nervous about the exact timing and financial details, so you could also join us in praying for those things.

A pastor’s family lives in what is often described as a “fishbowl”: he and his family live under an unusual degree of public scrutiny, and their home is often grand central station. Mark 2 records the instance in Jesus’ ministry when four men removed the roof and lowered a paralytic down to Jesus. Not until this afternoon did I pay close attention to verse 1: this happened at Jesus’ home! Talk about life in a fishbowl: I’ve never had anyone come through my roof before!  : - )

With appropriate boundaries in place, we embrace and enjoy the fishbowl. That opportunity to be a living example of Christlikeness is a critical part of our ministry. I’m not complaining about the fishbowl effect - simply noting something I never noticed before: they came through Jesus’ roof!

• Facility search: we’re pursuing a good contact right now with the local community college.
• Decisions about Sunday night: we’re struggling to determine the best next step for our Sunday night groups
• Through the diligence of a man in our church, I had the opportunity to share the gospel last week with a Jehovah’s Witness man who may only have a few weeks to live, and another older man who has never been to church or read the Bible. On Sunday we also had a visiting man who is almost certainly unsaved.
• My parents are coming February 8-15 to do a Christian Life conference for us. We are praying that God will really work through His Word.

Sin aims always at the utmost; every time it rises up to tempt or entice, might it have its own course, it would go out to the utmost sin in that kind…. It proceeds toward its height by degrees, making good the ground it has got by hardness [through] deceitfulness…. Do not say ‘Thus far it shall go, and no farther.’ If it has allowance for one step, it will take another…. It is from the deceitfulness of indwelling sin that men persuade themselves that by this or that particular sin they shall so satisfy their lusts as that they shall need to sin no more. Every sin … fortifies the habit of sinning…. You cannot bargain with the fire to take [only] so much of your houses…. Put a violent stop unto its beginnings, its first motions and actions… die rather than yield one step unto it…. You had never had [i.e., would never have had] the experience of the fury of sin, if you had not been content with some of its dalliances.

… and God answered prayer! We planned a Christmas Eve outreach, but the forecast was for rain. Wednesday morning I was praying for God to slow the storm or split the storm. Wednesday afternoon the radar looked grim. We arrived Wednesday night and it started to rain. Less than 10 minutes later it stopped completely, and the rest of the night was clear. People were out and about, and we were able to distribute dozens of evangelistic booklets and church invitation cards!

Merry Christmas from all of us at GBC! I’d love to write a year-end review, but Sunday is calling. Thank you for all of your prayers for the ministry here.

“Turning now to the long run, the next 40 years, I’d suggest a strategic emphasis on schools, media, and cities…. You don’t change a national culture without a strong base in cities. It’s not accidental that the apostle Paul began his major ministry activities in Antioch, then the third largest city in the Roman Empire. He sent epistles to residents of the empire’s large cities: Rome, Corinth, Ephesus.”

Marvin Olasky, “Schools, Media, Cities” (World, November 29/December 6, 2008)

Riverside County is receiving 49 million dollars from the housing rescue bill passed last summer. Only Miami/Dade and Chicago are receiving more. The county board of supervisors has come up with a plan to use the money to purchase and resell foreclosed homes, boost homebuyer assistance programs, and more. Is this wise fiscal policy on either the federal or local level? Can I suggest that in one sense the Christian’s answer should be: “I don’t really care”?

Fiscal policy matters - but moping (or rejoicing) over policy decisions can distract us from the real questions: “How is our community changing? What are the ramifications of this for ministry? How do these changes provide fresh opportunities for ministry?” It is not wrong to evaluate and analyze the decisions politicians are making as they seek to stabilize our economy. But let’s make sure we stay focused on the main questions. Every time cultural, political, or economic changes sweep across our country, they bring both challenges and new opportunities for ministry. Let’s pray for God’s strength to be seen in new ways through the challenges, and God’s glory to be spread in exciting ways through the opportunities.

Seven years ago I had the privilege of spending a summer studying church planting and demographics (and getting paid to do it!). Some of that was ‘published’ on a minor scale, including a guide to demographics for church planters. It was fun and helped fuel my fire for church planting. Today I get to tell you that all of my research from back then is essentially worthless (except for a few core principles to help church planters not be misled by demographics data). But the free tools available today are just astonishing compared to what I had back then. I’m sure dozens more could be added to this list, but here are a couple of samples:

• Claritas’ “You Are Where You Live” tool has 66 distinct “life-style types” that can be used to characterize most Americans. Enter a zip code, and they’ll tell you the top 5 “types” in that zip code.
• City-Data.com and Homefair’s City Data Report compile an overwhelming amount of data for cities and zip codes.
• Realty sites often have interesting info - like Realtor.com’s “Find a Neighborhood”

That summer I also had access to Microsoft’s corporate mapping software (MapPoint - $300). Since then I’ve often longed for one MapPoint feature in particular. You could choose a point and then ask MapPoint to show you how far you could drive in a certain number of minutes from that point. In other words, you could pick a hypothetical church location, and find out exactly which people live within a 25-minute drive of that location. MapPoint provided a detailed map, much more helpful than the simplistic radius circles we often use. If any of you know about a website that will do this for free, please let me know!

With all of the free tools available today, it is much easier for church planters to do extensive preliminary research. Never forget, however, that websites can never compare to the value of spending a few days “on the ground” in your target area! Save your pennies for a good long survey trip.

Would you please pray for the Wilkinsons loan to go through? The loan was supposed to fund last Monday - the same day the loan company went out of business. It has been passed on to another company, and could well be finalized by the end of this week. But until then D&H are ‘homeless’ (staying with a family in our church).

Please pray also for the Lord to give the Trues wisdom and provision. The lab work has been very slow for him for the last few weeks.

We had a good Sunday, though some people weren’t too thrilled with my assertion that Jesus and His disciples had an actual lamb at the ‘Last Supper’ (contra da Vinci!). I’ve learned so much studying the Passover, Jesus’ last Passover, and the Lord’s Supper.

Random stuff: The mothers of three adults in our church have passed away in the last three weeks. Major financial problems persist. We’ve had lots of visitors recently, though few of them ’sticking.’ Pastor Eric and I are working on an evangelism plan for 2009 (this is interesting). I’m not necessarily looking forward to the discussion about foreknowledge in Institute this week. I turned 31 and David turned 33 last week. I’m looking forward to the possibility of having email on my phone, possibly by the end of this week. Dr. Berg’s Essential Virtues is profitable. After a lengthy losing streak, my team has won the last two church picnic football games. (as you can tell, I can’t manage to pull off an eloquent or philosophical post today!)

We are in no danger from the fires burning across Southern California right now, and most of us live in fairly fire-safe areas. These fires are small, but they have been unusual because they have sprung up in very populated areas. As you’ve probably seen on the news, entire neighborhoods have been gone in a few hours. So it has been unusually unnerving for a lot of people.

Pray for an unsaved couple that heard the gospel in our service this morning after being evacuated from their home.

We appreciate your continued prayers regarding our facility situation. The Seventh Day Adventist church board is supposed to be meeting today to consider our facility request. I don’t expect a final decision from them, but this is an important step in the process. We only want to do what God wants us to do, so we would appreciate your prayers in this regard.

We’ve had a somewhat low and difficult time over the last six or eight weeks. Some families moved away and attendance has been down (it was back up a little bit to 76 yesterday); we’ve had a rash of fairly serious spiritual problems within our church membership; and it’s been a challenging time for our elders (Scott’s company is going through a very difficult time, and David was gone for three more weeks with Farmers). We are not disheartened, but continue to press forward and look for the providential opportunities God is bringing through the challenges. Exodus 5 and 6 were an encouraging study yesterday.

There is plenty of exciting or potentially exciting news: the Wilkinsons had an offer accepted on a house here in Menifee; the facility possibility; a new church website in the works; wonderful help from the Trues and Hamblens; and more. Thank you for praying for us.

I’ve started into the new ESV Study Bible, which was just released this month. I’m in no position to write any kind of official review: I’ve just skimmed some of the notes, read some of the articles, and I’m working my way slowly through Leviticus. I could say many positive things: they’ve done an exceptional job in many ways. I love the fact that on the very first page of the introduction they take the time to make sure the reader knows the difference between the “divine words” at the top of each page and the “merely human words” (the study notes) at the bottom. That simple clarification exemplifies their deep respect for God’s Word.

But what has grabbed my attention already is the pastoral angst associated with nearly any study Bible. The ESV Study Bible comes from the doctrinal perspective of “classic evangelical orthodox.” They tell you in the introduction that “Within that broad tradition of evangelical orthodoxy, the notes have sought to represent fairly the various evangelical positions on disputed topics such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, spiritual gifts, the future of ethnic Israel, and questions concerning the millennium and other events connected with the time of Christ’s return.” I expect most pastors would hear that and say: “Good. They’re trying to stay off of individual soapboxes, and provide a study Bible for a broad range of conservative evangelicals.”

But when you actually start seeing that commitment fleshed out in the notes, I think most pastors will begin to experience some angst. “Hey, why don’t they agree with me! They shouldn’t just leave that issue open like that!” And the angst is especially poignant when you consider recommending the Bible to your flock: “But people might come to conclusions different from the ones I’ve been teaching them!” If you make it through the “overview of the Bible” and “theology of the Old Testament” articles without any angst, it will almost surely arise when you arrive at the introduction to Genesis and work your way through “Genesis and Science.”

Please understand that I’m not criticizing the ESV Study Bible. It’s too early for me to draw conclusions, and there are a lot of things I really like about it. I’m simply noting that it’s one thing for a pastor to agree to the ESVSB team’s philosophy and commitments; it’s another thing all together to work up the courage to put those open-ended notes into the hands of your people!

Short version: I’ve recently found that mind-mapping is a very effective and time-saving way to organize my sermon material. There are lots of options: I use the free program at www.mindomo.com. See a sample from this past Sunday.

Long version: We arrived at Exodus 4:22 this week, where God speaks of Israel as “My Son, My Firstborn.” Since this is the first Scriptural mention of this theme, it ended up being an extensive study for me. Cross references led to cross references, and soon I was working on the theme throughout scripture. It was a thrilling study, as one exciting passage led to another. Just one problem: I knew that when Sunday arrived, I had 40 minutes to lay out this theme for the listeners, for whom the thoughts would be brand new. How do you take all of that material, boil it down to the essentials, and organize it in a coherent and cohesive sermon? That’s the preacher’s challenge every week, but it’s especially challenging on weeks like this. For me, mind-mapping has been a tremendous help. I’ve dabbled with it for a couple of years, but just in the last few months I’ve started to use it extensively in sermon prep. It is not an electronic “toy” that wastes time - it is a tool that is saving me time and improving the clarity of the sermons.

For me, the basic process flows like this:

• Initial impressions (determining basic direction of study)
• Exegesis (the study itself)
• Mind-mapping (bringing together all the results of the study)
• Manuscripting (writing the sermon)

Pastoral ministry is full of challenging situations, but not all of them cut deeply into his heart. But certain things do cut deeply. For me, one of the things that cuts deeply is when someone I’ve sought to counsel, disciple, and help suggests that my ministry to them has been misguided and harmful. I was introduced to this in the first months of this church plant when a family suggested that my ministry to them in a marital crisis “tore their family apart.” It has happened more times since then. I’m certain that all pastors experience this. I’m also certain that at times I have counseled and discipled poorly. I have probably done more damage than I know!

However, in many situation these accusations are largely unfounded. In these situations, my response is critical. The words of II Timothy 2 regularly challenge my heart: not quarrelsome, kind, patient, gentle.  I’ve recently been challenged by another concept. I’ve been reading a book that suggests that “God intends for the afflictions of Christ to be presented to the world through the afflictions of his people” (Col. 1:24, Gal. 6:17, II Cor. 4:10-12, etc.). When I feel the cut of a largely unfounded accusation, my response may give a glimpse of Christ to others (even those making the accusation). I Peter 2:23 While being reviled, he did not revile in return. Do I want to revile in return? Yes! But if I continue in patient, gentle, humble sacrificial love for them and entrust myself to Him who judges righteously, the accusers might see a little bit of Christ in me. They will not if I revile in return.

It is encouraging for me to see that mistreated pastors not only enjoy deeper fellowship with Christ in his sufferings, but can also spread the glory of Christ through the mistreatment.

“Those who are most successful in the ministry of local churches move on to larger churches and higher salaries rather than moving on to challenging unchurched areas where their experience and abilities could be used in starting new congregations…. Where are the modern Paul’s - divinely motivated to go to churchless vacuums rather than large churches?” (Dvaid J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally)

Those words grabbed my attention the first time I read them. I would love to spend my whole life ministering in Menifee. But I sometimes wonder if, someday in the future, God might want my family to go to another area of Southern California, a “challenging unchurched area,” and put our experience and abilities to work there? It may be that God wants us to stay in Menifee and play a supporting, organizing, preparing, and coaching role as others go to different areas in Southern California. But if God wants us to go, I pray that our hearts will be eager, even if to many it would seem like a step down the pastoral ladder.

On October 1 Menifee graduated from being an unincorporated “area” in Riverside Couty to official “city” status. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the community interest in this. When we moved to Menifee five years ago, there seemed to be very little sense of community. But that has changed a lot over the last five years, and I think that 800 people showed up for last week’s inauguration ceremony.

Cityhood also ended up coinciding with another major change for Menifee - the opening of our first large shopping center (Super Target, Kohls, Best Buy, Lowes, restaurants, banks, etc.). Menifee is a very different place than it was 10 years ago, and even five years ago. I think most of the changes are for the better, and we definitely enjoying calling Menifee home.

Countries go through uncertain and challenging times, and church plants do too (and a country’s challenges can often impact a church plant). It’s easy to pick up a media-driven sense of fear or worry and become focused on the challenges. But it is much better to focus on the opportunities. The sovereign hand of God is at work behind every cultural shift, every financial crisis, and every political change. Don’t become myopic about the challenges: look for the God-given opportunities that come with the challenges. (Yes, I’m preaching to myself…)

For us, two opportunities come to mind very quickly:

1. Spiritual sensitivity: financial difficulties are often spiritually profitable, as God peels away the veneer and reveals that riches truly are an uncertain place to fix your hope ( I Tim. 6:17).
2. Housing prices: two years ago no one on our team could have purchased a home in Menifee - the prices were outrageous. Now the opportunity may be there.

Those things are just the tip of the iceberg: what other opportunities does God have planned for us?!

Three unconnected thoughts about the ministry here:

1. This past Saturday we had our second session of Bible Doctrine I in our Discipleship Institute. It is really hard work, but really a blessing to teach people doctrine in a direct format like this. It’s exciting to be far enough in to a church plant that we get to do this!
2. It doesn’t matter what part of the Bible you preach - it’s thrilling. I’ve now preached through Colossians, Hebrews, Genesis, I Peter, I-III John, and 60+ weeks on the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, and every new expositional series ends up being thrilling. I know God already told us this, and He doesn’t need my affirmation. But I affirm it anyways from my own experience: Psalm 119:103 How sweet are your words to my taste, yes sweeter than honey in my mouth.
3. It’s great to be back to aggressively seeking and planning outreach. You go through “seasons” in church planting where you are able to do a lot, then you have to back off for a time for various reasons. Now that Pastor Eric is settled in, we’re able to head into a time where we are able to pursue doing more, and it is exciting.

Many fundamental church plants are planted in areas with lots of young families, and the churches produce advertising materials that primarily target families. I wonder why? I’ve been mulling over some of the possible reasons:

• The family unit is a God-given structure that is foundational for a healthy society and church.
• Families may be most likely to “put their roots down” in an area and provide long term stability for a church.
• We are eager for any evangelistic inroad we can find, and children often provide such an inroad with their parents.
• Advertising budgets are tight, and it’s hard to get excited about spending a lot of money on an ad campaign focused on a narrower target audience.
• Fundamental churches have traditionally placed a strong emphasis on high-quality children’s programs, and we obviously want to invite people to our strengths.

I’m sure other things could be listed, but that’s a start. Most of those reasons are probably valid, but the end result is that most church plants struggle to reach singles. Now, you might say: “Christian churches in general struggle to reach singles - it’s not just church plants of fundamental churches.” True. However, we come into church planting with a plan for reaching children and a plan for reaching families - but do we have any plan for reaching other social groups?

Many contemporary churches have focused their attention on singles. A stereotypical church has a Saturday evening alternative service targeted toward young singles. There is plenty to criticize about how these churches go about this, but we still should notice that they are trying to reach our beyond just families. What is our plan?

For church plants near colleges and universities, campus ministry may be a significant part of the answer. But what about church plants in locations like ours, where the nearest university is 30 minutes away? How do we meet the challenge of reaching out beyond just families?

“As victims of Claudius’s edict, Aquila and Priscilla moved to Corinth where they continued their occupation as tentmakers (Acts 18:2-3). From a human perspective the founding and growth of the Corinthian church (to say nothing of the success of Apollos, Acts 18:24-28) were due in large part to the ministry of these well-informed and dedicated laypeople. These humble believers - and a host of others like them, both named and unnamed in the record, had a vital part in the planting of churches in the Apostolic Era. And this was as it was supposed to be.” (David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally)

Should we be willing to use the phrase “church planter” to describe church planting teammates other than the pastor himself? I know it’s just semantics, but I wonder if this might help communicate that there is much more to a church plant than just a pastor. Lawyers, graphic designers, accountants, prayers, piano players, youth leaders - aren’t they an integral part of planting the church? Maybe we should call them “church planters,” to help them remember how important they are!

“Paul’s strategy was to concentrate on cities located on major routes of communication and commerce. He utilized his tent-making ability to provide for both his own needs and the needs of some of his coworkers. He did not subsidize newly planted churches with monies from outside…. As he proceeded from city to city, Paul sought out relatives, friends, and business associates of people he had known in Antioch and other places. These contacts became bridges to bring the gospel into new places and among new peoples.” (David J. Hesselgrave, Planting Churches Cross-Culturally)

It is generally accepted that bi-vocational church planting is suicidal. Church planting is so demanding and time-consuming that a man just can’t work a regular job and plant a church at the same time. In general, this is true. But is the only other option a “missionary” model of church planting, where the church planter goes on deputation all over the country for years to raise the adequate financial support? Are those the only two options: suicidal bivocational church planting, or deputation-based missionary church planting?

I wonder if we shouldn’t rethink the possibilites of bivocational church planting. What if a bivocational church planter was:

1. Part of an internal church planting movement
2. Well-connected to other churches in the area
3. Sent out by a church within an hour’s drive
4. Well-prepared for church planting
5. Very familiar with his target area, including potential contacts (see the end of Hesselgrave’s quote above)
6. Aided by a well-supported team / core group
7. Provided with sufficient resources for startup
8. Only bi-vocational for a brief time period, hopefully a year or less

Is that still so suicidal? I’m not sure, but it’s worth considering…

My muddled brain has four comments about Friday and Saturday’s elder retreat:

1. It’s amazing how much there is to oversee in a church of 100 people.
2. It’s exhausting to work through all of the major issues related to the church in two days.
3. It’s joyous to work together with an elder team of like-minded men.
4. It’s thrilling to plan another church plant and be another step closer to our dream of a vibrant church planting movement from within Southern California.

We’ve recently discovered that the Seventh Day Adventist church in Menifee is no longer being rented to the same church that has rented it for several years. The Lord allowed Eric & David to spend some time with the pastor. They are not certain if they will want another renter, but they are at least willing to consider it. In several ways this might be an ideal situation for us. It’s an exciting thing to pray about, at least.

But this raises a tough question - what should a fundamental Christian church be willing to support with their rental fees? I’m not necessarily excited about supporting the local SDA church. But then again, over the last five years we’ve poured more than $60,000 into the local public school district! Other pastors have rented from liberal churches, Masonic lodges, and even night clubs. Is there some sort of ethical line at any point here?

Occasionally, in the midst of the stuff of ministry, I have moments when I suddenly realize: “This is what we always dreamed of! This is what church planting is all about! This is amazing!” I remember that feeling the first time our children’s choir sang. I get that feeling when we see miraculous life changes taking place. I get that feeling when I think about getting ready for church plant #2. They are “dream come true” moments.

Yesterday and today I’ve been laboring to get ready for our next Discipleship Institute class - “Bible Doctrine I.” I have a growing appreciation for my seminary professors: this is really hard work!! Meanwhile Sunday’s teaching and preaching responsibilities are looming closer and closer. I’ve been tempted to get a little frustrated and weary of digging through the nuances of a theology book. Then I had one of ‘those’ moments, when I realized that this is really a dream come true. I get to prepare to teach an institute course on Bible Doctrine to 10 or 15 people in our church family. When we started GBC, we didn’t even know 10 or 15 people in this area! To even have an institute is a dream come true, much less having 10 or 15 people who want to spend their Saturday mornings studying theology - what a joy!

Today we launched a pretty ambitious new sermon series. I’m calling it “Christ in the Old Covenant,” but that’s code language for “an exposition of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.” Of course I won’t actually be going through all four books one verse at a time, but Lord-willing we will at least touch on all of the content of all four books. I don’t know how long the series will take, but it will probably not be measured in months, but years. We covered Genesis 1-11 in 2005, and Genesis 12-50 in parts of 2006 and 2007. So on we go into Exodus! This is definitely a major preaching challenge for lots of reasons:

• the negative perceptions of the Old Testament
• the really negative perceptions of the law (commonly associated with Leviticus)
• the non-thematic arrangement of the content ( want to learn about the priests? see Ex 28-29, Lev 8-10, 21-22, Num 3-4, 8, 16-18, Deut 18 )
• a huge cultural gap between then and now
• the big questions related to OT theology in general (for example, the conditional vs. unconditional aspects of the covenants; the relationship of the law to new covenant believers; etc.)
• the sheer magnitude of it all: 135 chapters.

Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, [Christ] explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. We can pray more literally than ever: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your Law”!

[I know nothing about these people or these churches, so I'm not posting this link to endorse them in any way.] Eric True showed me this site: http://www.orchardgroup.org/, and I really liked it because it draws together multiple church plants in an attempt to build a church planting movement. Someday we would love to have a site like this one for Southern California!

Speaking of websites, we are very excited to have Justin Murphy and Chip Wiginton here right now to redo the Grace Bible Church website!! You can see more about them at Your Creative People.

This week we’re saying goodbye to two families that are moving away: Adam & Kristi Lee and Javier & Lisa Villagran. Financial considerations have been at the center of both of these moves, and it won’t be any surprise if we lose more families in the coming months as the economic pain continues to hit home. Our attendance has been flirting with 100, but these departures will obviously have an impact on that. We had about 80 people at a wonderful picnic last night to say goodbye to the Lees and Villagrans.

My Sunday was highlighted by two conversations in which people expressed very sincere appreciation for the preaching, and specifically expressed the ways God has been changing their lives and homes through the Word. We’ve finished up our series on the Fear of God, and by the end of August we’ll begin our new series exploring the rest of the Pentateuch.

We also voted this Sunday to appoint Eric True as an elder. In one sense this was just a formality, but in another sense it is very important for our church family to commit to follow his leadership as God designs in Scripture. This past Sunday was the vote - next Sunday we’ll have an appointment service to remind both Eric and the people of their biblical responsibilities to one another.

We’ve finalized plans for an elders’ planning retreat September 5-6. This will be an important time of planning both for GBC Menifee and for the next church plant.

While we are losing two families, we’re excited that the Lord is also bringing another one! Nate & Erin Hamblen are on their way across the country (oh, that wonderful time of life when you can fit all of your belongings into a car!). They are scheduled to arrive this Friday. They will be living and working in Corona for now, but they are excited to serve any way they can in our church family.

“When you plant a church, prepare your first year of sermons in advance. That way you can spend the first year soulwinning.” Healthy advice? One other thing that makes me uncomfortable about this statement is the inference that church planting is a sprint. I remember being told about one very successful church planter who worked 70 hours a week during the first years of his church plant - and this was suggested to me as a positive example to follow!

Things here on the blog might be quiet until I return from the celebration of my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary and 50 years in pastoral ministry. My father is a faithful soulwinner. My parents have worked plenty of 70 hour weeks when necessary. But when people talk about Mom and Dad, one word comes up repeatedly: faithful. Fifty years worth of faithfulness doesn’t happen if you treat ministry like a sprint. My dad was always up before me, with his Bible, feeding his heart so that he could feed the hearts of a flock on Sunday.

This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes: “Church planting requires determination, vision, and a willingness to pay the price of ministry. Many church plants fail, and people who have been involved in them are sometimes left disillusioned. People enter church planting projects with high hopes and with a sense of excitement. It can be no other way. But, as we know, the higher our hopes the greater the force with which they can be dashed on the rocks of realism and disappointment. All of this is just another way of saying that church planting is a long-term initiative, and that ought to be written into the contract.” (Stephen Timmis, Multiplying Churches)

Church planting is a long-term initiative. Don’t burn out your own heart or your flock by spending the first year preaching stock sermons. “Work hard at preaching and teaching” (I Timothy 5:17).

Seven years ago I received this advice: “When you plant a church, prepare your first year of sermons in advance. That way you can spend the first year soulwinning.” There’s one thing I like about that statement: it places a strong emphasis on the evangelistic foundation necessary for a healthy church plant. But in most every other way, that advice tends toward a very unhealthy church plant.

What about the church planter’s heart? Is a year without any serious sermon preparation spiritually healthy?

What about the flock - are they being fed by those stock sermons prepared in advance and pulled out of the file folder on Saturday afternoon?

What about the pastor’s relationship to his people? Though he should shepherd in many other ways, does not the primary shepherding occur through the Word as it is preached and taught?

Does this statement suggest that preaching is a peripheral - or even problematic - part of church planting?

One more comment has to do with patience … but that will come in the next post.

“A congregation that will not give of itself for the purpose of reproduction can be likened to a couple who do not want to have a child because a baby would hinder their careers and freedom. Time will reveal that kind of choice to be a very poor one indeed, especially after the novelty of career and freedom have worn off and afford no long-term fulfillment.”

from Church Planting Voices, compiled by Michael Noel

Check out this blog post:

http://www.menifee247.com/2008/06/bringing-jobs-to-menifee.htm

The True family arrived safely last Thursday afternoon. Their truck also arrived without any problems. We got everything unloaded on Saturday, so now they are in the middle of the big job of unpacking and setting up the lab. It was really thrilling to have them in church Sunday morning!

Last Tuesday Menifee voters approved the ballot measure that will incorporate Menifee as a city on October 1 of this year. About 10,000 people voted, with 61% approving cityhood. The new city, which will be called Menifee, will cover 48 square miles and have a population of about 60,000. There is no way to foresee what impact this will actually have on those of us who live here. It will be interesting to see if the new city can be financially healthy - things have changed a lot since they did the feasability study. What impact will this have on the ability of churches to gain approval to build (or even lease commercial space) in Menifee? I suppose it largely depends on the city council and how desperate they are to utilize every possible inch of land to generate tax revenue.

There’s a lot that’s wrong with Nike’s famous line: just do it. We could discuss the theological misimplications of that phrase all day. But there’s a sense in which every Christian needs a “just do it” attitude. I loved Marvin Olasky’s editorial in a recent World magazine. He called it “Mad missions.” Mad missions are risky endeavors with no guarantee of success except the possibility that God might choose to bless it and use it for His glory and the good of many people. But Olasky notes (borrowing a line from de Tocqueville) that many American Christians are ruled by a “soft despotism,” with personal peace and affluence as their only goals. Personal peace and affluence is not a mad mission: it’s a foolish one (Luke 12:20f.).

I’m very thankful for many influences in my early years that challenged me to just do it for the sake of Christ. God graciously worked in my heart a passion that when I reach the end of my life I do not want to look back and say: “I played it safe, and wasted it.” If God is so great, we should just do it. That passion often wanes, and the soft despotism creeps into my heart. But the passion is still there. When I sit around a table with other Southern California pastors, as I did at Ministry Summit last week, the passion burns. Maybe God will bless this mad mission. Maybe we will see a vibrant, fundamental church planting movement in Southern California. Better to fail at that mad mission than succeed at the American dream and ultimately be called a fool.

You cycle through various ministry emphases simply because you can’t emphasize everything at once. A current emphasis that has been growing in my heart is the desire to be a praying church. Another pastor shared with me the idea of making a church family prayer card (just like you have missionary prayer cards), to help your people pray for one another. So we are trying to get a picture taken so that we can do that. We also are starting a prayer time between the 9:30 and 10:30 service, where a small group will pray for the upcoming service. We’re also at the end of I John, and the difficult section in 5:14-17 ended up being a wonderful challenge for us to pray for one another.

We’re very excited that Eric & Alicia True have been able to purchase a new home in Menifee. You can go to www.liveheritagelake.com, check out the picture of the pool, and then razz them about how tough it must be coming to Southern California. They will share their presentation at our sending church, Heritage Bible Church, next Wednesday evening. It’s sweet to consider that 5 years ago we were sharing our presentation at Heritage - now 5 years later they will be hearing a presentation from a potential ‘granddaughter’ church out of GBC.